UW-Stout News

UW-Stout News Story

Professor to discuss civic engagement at watershed conference

March 11, 2013

A UW-Stout social science professor will be one of nearly 20 speakers at the Red Cedar Watershed Conference scheduled Thursday, March 14, on campus.

Nels Paulson will present “Civic Engagement and Producing Sustainable Communities” at 10 a.m. in the Memorial Student Center. His talk will address one of the key issues of the conference, group and large-scale social action.

Paulson’s research has been published in several journals, including Conservation and Society. His current research is on phosphorous pollution in the Midwest and the role of society in dealing with nonpoint-source pollution.

The conference examines nonpoint-source pollution in the Red Cedar River watershed. Blue-green algae blooms caused by an excess of phosphorous have compromised water quality, especially in lakes Menomin and Tainter.

Conference attendees can choose from nine breakout sessions on a variety of related water and land-use topics. Other speakers will be officials from UW-Stevens Point, UW-Extension, Clark County, Dunn County, St. Croix County and the state Department of Natural Resources. Also, a roundtable discussion on agricultural practices will feature farmers from Dunn and Barron counties.

The opening keynote address, from 8:40 to 9:40 a.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center, will be by Wellington “Buddy” Huffaker, president of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. He will discuss Leopold's vision of a land ethic, in which people become part of the biological community, and how this concept applies to the work in the nearly 1,900-square-mile Red Cedar River watershed.

Registration for the conference remains open. For more information click here.

More than 200 people are expected to attend. The major sponsors are UW-Stout, the Wisconsin DNR and Xcel Energy.